Pole for Plato, Thompson ahead of Muller.

Jason Plato set the fastest time in the mixed conditions of qualifying for the final day of racing in the British Touring Car Championship at Donington Park.

Plato, who is in contention for third overall in the championship, took advantage of a light on ballast car and SEAT's fine setup in the mixed conditions, in a session where teams experimented with a variety of different tyre mixtures between slicks and wets to get the ultimate lap time.

In the championship title battle James Thompson made amends for his mistake in the second practice session of the day where he, as he put it, 'over-estimated his talent' on the out lap to put his Astra straight into the gravel without setting a lap time.

There was none of this for Thompson in the vital qualifying session and the Yorkshireman went over three-tenths faster than title rival Yvan Muller.

Second fastest in qualifying, at an event his team is sponsoring, was Team Computeach racing with Halfords driver Matt Neal. The first corner with Plato and Neal, who clashed this season at Brands Hatch, should be interesting.

Fourth quickest, and splitting the Thompson and Muller VX Racing Astras is Colin Turkington in the WSR MG. Right in the mix in the true privateer Astra is Rob Collard, the Hampshireman impressing once again in difficult conditions.

After that it's age before youth in the top ten grid for Sunday as Anthony Reid leads young chargers Michael Bentwood, Luke Hines and Tom Chilton.

It's going to be an interesting race...

Top ten qualifiers
1. Jason Plato 1min 20.843secs
2. Matt Neal 1min 21.197secs
3. James Thompson 1min 21.226secs
4. Colin Turkington 1min 21.427secs
5. Yvan Muller 1min 21.584secs
6. Rob Collard 1min 21.657secs
7. Anthony Reid 1min 21.696secs
8. Michael Bentwood 1min 21.772secs
9. Luke Hines 1min 21.823secs
10. Tom Chilton 1min 21.847secs